On Thursday, US President-elect Donald Trump nominated vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr to head up the country’s top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F Kennedy Jr as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services [HHS],” Trump wrote on Thursday on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Who is Robert F Kennedy Jr?
Kennedy, 70, also known as RFK Jr, is an environmental lawyer and member of the American political Kennedy family.
He is the son of late US senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy and nephew of John F Kennedy, who was US president between 1961 and 1963, when he was assassinated.
He is known for having a neurological disorder that affects his voice, and which US media has reported he blames on a flu vaccine he received.
Kennedy initially announced that he would run for president in the 2024 election as a Democrat. Then, in October 2023, he declared that he would run as an independent. In late August this year, he dropped his presidential bid altogether to throw his support behind Trump instead.
Kennedy’s nomination as secretary of health and human services in the next Trump administration does not come as a surprise. Even before his election, Trump, during his rallies, was touting Kennedy as someone who “cares more about human beings, health and the environment than anybody”.
The president-elect told a New York City rally on October 27 that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health, food and medicines.
Kennedy has coined the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA).
What does the US Department of Health and Human Services do?
The department oversees all federal health matters in the US.
It oversees the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programmes, which provide health coverage for those with limited income, those aged 65 and older, and disabled people.
Where does Kennedy stand on health issues?
Kennedy has become subject to controversy due to his stance on several issues. These include:
Vaccines
Kennedy has long been sceptical of vaccines. He is the chair of the nonprofit activist group Children’s Health Defense, which largely spreads antivaccine information.
He also has tried to peddle the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism in children. One instance of this was during a 2005 interview with Joe Scarborough on US news channel MSNBC.
He repeated this theory in a 2023 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The notion that vaccines cause autism has been disproven by myriad scientific studies.
NBC News reported that Kennedy also believes the flu shot caused him to develop a rare neurological disorder that affected his voice.
However, he denies being an “anti-vaxxer” and told NBC News a day after Trump’s victory that he will not “take away anybody’s vaccines”.
Fluoride in water
According to the CDC website, most communities in the US have a small amount of fluoride added to tap water to prevent cavities and improve oral health. The fluoridation of water is a CDC recommendation.
On November 4, Kennedy rallied against fluoridation of water in a social media post. Trump said the idea “sounds OK” to him.
“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” wrote Kennedy.
A federal review published by the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in August concluded that higher levels of fluoride are indeed linked to lower IQ in children.
In late September this year, US District Judge Edward Chen ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoridation of water since it could hinder intellectual development in children.
He cautioned that it is not certain whether the current amount of fluoride in water is causing IQ loss in children.
Scientific experts say further research is needed to reach a sound conclusion on this matter.
According to the CDC, no evidence has been found that fluoride can affect other health aspects, such as causing birth defects or cancer.
Food and Drug Administration
Kennedy has been most critical of the FDA, which oversees nearly $3 trillion in medicines, food and tobacco products. In interviews and on social media, Kennedy has accused agency staff of being motivated by corporate interests and “doing the bidding” of Big Pharma and Big Food, the Reuters news agency reported.
In October this year, Kennedy wrote in an X post: “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
COVID-19
Kennedy opposed lockdowns imposed by many states in the US after the outbreak of COVID-19 to slow the spread of the virus.
He has also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the virus, which has been discredited as an effective cure.
Additionally, in July 2023, the New York Post uploaded a video in which Kennedy appeared to claim that the virus had been designed to target people based on their ethnicity. No evidence has ever been shown to support this theory.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he can be heard saying in the video.
How are people reacting to Trump’s nomination of Kennedy?
While some Republicans in Congress, closely aligned with Trump, welcomed the nomination, many say they are apprehensive.
Bill Cassidy, Republican Louisiana senator, posted on his X account, saying Kennedy “has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure”, adding that he is looking forward to learning about Kennedy’s other policy positions.
Cassidy graduated with a medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine and worked as a physician before entering politics.
Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson posted on X: “[Kennedy is] a brilliant, courageous truth-teller whose unwavering commitment to transparency will make America a healthier nation.”
When Tommy Tuberville, Republican senator from Alabama was asked if he would vote to confirm Kennedy’s appointment, Tuberville responded with “100 percent”. He posted on his X account saying, “No one has done more to expose corruption in big pharma and big food. Make America Healthy Again!” The Alabama senator is also a member of the Senate Health Committee.
However, Republican Senator from Maine Susan Collins was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “I find some of his statements to be alarming, but I’ve never even met with him or sat down with him or heard him speak at length.”
Democrats raised some alarm about Kennedy’s nomination.
Ed Markey, Democratic senator for Massachusetts quoted a news article of Kennedy’s nomination on his X platform, alongside the words, “Dangerous. Unqualified. Unserious.”
Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, also quoted the news on X, saying the appointment could “set America back in terms of public health, reproductive rights, research, & more”. “This could not be more dangerous,” she wrote.
“Putting somebody in charge of any public health service who is a vaccine denier puts at risk the stability of the nation at large,” Jeremy Levin, CEO of biotech company Ovid Therapeutics and a former chairman of biotech lobby group BIO told the Reuters news agency in October.
“Vaccine denialism, which is a central plank of RFK’s, is perhaps as dangerous as anything as you could imagine,” Levin said.
Shares of vaccine manufacturers including American multinational Pfizer and mRNA vaccine manufacturer Moderna fell by as much as 2 percent following the news.
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